StarBulletin.com

HPD links crimes to gang


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POSTED: Wednesday, November 12, 2008

A string of violent crimes ranging from two freeway shootings to a home invasion has been linked to three teenagers who are part of a gang called the Outlaws, according to a Honolulu Police Department report.

The report identifies Shaw Mohammad Awber as the leader of the Outlaws. He was charged in three assaults starting from December and in an attempted murder case June 29.

Nicholas Nichols and Joshua Gonda are identified as members of the gang. Nichols, 18, is awaiting trial for a July assault and for an August armed home-invasion robbery in which a 19-year-old man was shot.

Gonda, 19, is awaiting trial for an attempted-murder case for allegedly firing shots at a rival gang member's car July 9. He is also awaiting sentencing in federal court for selling methamphetamine to an undercover police officer near Kalihi Uka Elementary School in June and July 2007.

Police said Nichols was the driver in the June 29 and July 9 freeway shootings. He has not been charged in those two cases.

The police report identifies three other members of the Outlaws involved in some of the same and other crimes including first-degree robbery and car break-ins. However, none has been charged. Police arrested Awber in an attempted-murder case in which a pickup truck filled with teenage girls was fired upon as it was traveling on H-1 freeway June 29. Ten rounds hit the truck, but no one was injured.

Awber was 17 when he was arrested July 4. He turned 18 on Oct. 10.

Senior Judge Frances Wong waived state Family Court jurisdiction last week allowing Awber to be charged as an adult with first-degree attempted murder, three counts of second-degree attempted murder using a firearm to commit a felony and carrying a firearm without a permit.

 

Other Awber charges:

» Awber faces second-degree assault for allegedly hitting 21-year-old Rudy Tabios on the head with a baseball bat May 1 at Kalakaua District Park in Kapalama.

» He is charged with two counts of second-degree assault and first-degree criminal property damage for allegedly using a baseball bat to attack two males who were sleeping in a car parked outside Tabios' residence next to the park on Dec. 3.

» He faces second-degree assault for hitting one of the same two males in the head later that day with a golf club then stabbing him in the stomach with the shaft after the club head broke off.

 

Nichols charges:

» First-, second- and third-degree assault for allegedly throwing a broken beer bottle into Tabios' face, permanently disfiguring him, hitting him in the head and body with a baseball bat and punching another male in the face July 30 at Kalakaua District Park.

» Second-degree attempted murder, two counts of first-degree robbery, three counts of kidnapping, first-degree burglary, using a firearm to commit the crimes and carrying a firearm without a permit, in an Aug. 11 Aliamanu armed home-invasion robbery in which a 19-year-old man was hit by a shot which paralyzed him from the waist down.

According to state court records, Nichols has four auto-theft convictions as a juvenile.

Police said Nichols drove Awber to the park and pulled up alongside Tabios in the May 1 attack. Nichols challenged Tabios to a fist fight but Tabios ran after he saw Awber approaching him with a baseball bat, police said.

 

Gonda charges:

» Gonda allegedly fired six shots at a car of a rival gang member July 9 on Moanalua Freeway. One shot hit the front-seat passenger of the other car, a 16-year-old boy, paralyzing him from the waist down. Nichols drove the car from which Gonda fired the shots, police said.

» Gonda is awaiting trial for first-degree attempted murder, two counts of second-degree attempted murder and related firearm charges.